Reformed Churchmen

We are Confessional Calvinists and a Prayer Book Church-people. In 2012, we remembered the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer; also, we remembered the 450th anniversary of John Jewel's sober, scholarly, and Reformed "An Apology of the Church of England." In 2013, we remembered the publication of the "Heidelberg Catechism" and the influence of Reformed theologians in England, including Heinrich Bullinger's Decades. For 2014: Tyndale's NT translation. For 2015, John Roger, Rowland Taylor and Bishop John Hooper's martyrdom, burned at the stakes. Books of the month. December 2014: Alan Jacob's "Book of Common Prayer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Common-Prayer-Biography-Religious/dp/0691154813/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417814005&sr=8-1&keywords=jacobs+book+of+common+prayer. January 2015: A.F. Pollard's "Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation: 1489-1556" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-English-Reformation-1489-1556/dp/1592448658/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420055574&sr=8-1&keywords=A.F.+Pollard+Cranmer. February 2015: Jaspar Ridley's "Thomas Cranmer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-Jasper-Ridley/dp/0198212879/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422892154&sr=8-1&keywords=jasper+ridley+cranmer&pebp=1422892151110&peasin=198212879

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Book of Common Prayer--Anything But Common


The Book of Common Prayer – Anything but Common

BCP


It is not often we encounter a die in the wool card carrying Presbyterian give praise to The Book of Common Prayer, but a few years ago this happened when the Academic Dean and Professor of Historical Theology and Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia Carl Trueman was interviewed by a Anglican priest from the Diocese of Sydney and acknowledged that the BCP was one of the crown jewels of Anglicanism, (the others being the Homilies and the Thirty-nine Articles).


But it seems to me in some Anglican circles in Australia that the crown jewels have been gathering dust for a very long time. I love the Book of Common Prayer (often simply referred to as the BCP), yet it is rarely used and it appears to be easy to forget that the front page of  A Prayer Book for Australia and An Australian Prayer Book both state their purpose:
For use together with The Book of Common Prayer (1662)
My view is that the Book of Common Prayer is anything but common. It is a gem but first it is important to know a bit about the history of the BCP.


Imagine that you had come here to church this morning because you had a heavy heart, and you wanted to hear something from the Word of God.


Imagine that you as you walk in here you find a building adorned with pictures and statues of saints. And then, there was a display case with relics of dead saints, a tooth of St So and So, teeth of St So and So, there were splinters from the cross of Christ, hair from 13 out of 12 apostles, breast milk from the Virgin Mary and enough nails from the cross to shoe every horse for Melbourne cup day, and by simply looking at these sacred relics or touching them, you can win favour with God or at least reduce the time that you spend in purgatory.


Imagine that when the service begins, the minister does speak in English but speaks Latin. The priest is elaborately attired in vestments of various colours, spends most of the service conducting a ritual at the altar. And now and them, he and everybody else, falls down to worship or pray to what is on the altar. There is no sermon. As if there is a need or want of a sermon. For the reason everyone has come is to see what is done by the priest and to adore and worship the bread and win that is on the altar.


Imagine that you lived in England 500 years ago and attended a service, that is exactly what you would have experienced.


The core problem was that the Bible was shut! Because it was shut, there was no discernment, people could not tell the difference between what was true and what was false, there was superstition and ignorance of the things of God and that was the clergy. And to read or even own a part of the Bible in English was punishable by death. Because services were in Latin, which also lead to ignorance. Only the clergy and the educated (the rich) spoke Latin, so for most people who came to church it was all ‘hocus pocus’ (and by the way that term is a slang word that came from people hearing the priest say ‘Hoc est corpus’ at Eucharist, which means this is my body) and today ‘Hocus Pocus’ means something that is nonsense).


But slowly at the beginning of the 16th century, things began to change and over the course of a few decades, a revolution took place – the Bible became an open book. People began to hear the Word of God in their own language, this revolution reformed the church, and history knows this movement as The Reformation. God raised up men who read the Bible, and their eyes were opened to the errors that had riddled the church. It happened in Europe first, with people like Martin Luther, and then it came to England.


During this time, there was a new era of technology, the Printing Press had been invented. Until this time books were rare and expensive. Now books could be published on mass, cheaply, quickly, Bibles could be produced. And God raised up one man, who in God’s providence was placed in a position and a role where he could work for change in England, even though he was risking his life to do so. That man was the first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury, and his name was Thomas Cranmer.


 Thomas Cranmer


He was born 521 years ago on the 2nd of July, 1489, and this morning we are going to hear a little about him and about the benefits and legacy that we as Anglicans can thank God for.


For the rest, see:
http://convictionalanglican.wordpress.com/2014/04/09/the-book-of-common-prayer-anything-but-common/?blogsub=confirming#subscribe-blog

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